New Books Will Keep Patients Well-informed

It's a common occurance today for a patient to leave a physician's office with two prescriptions in hand: one for medication and the other for a reading list related to their illness.

While a pharmacy can readily fill the prescription, it was the dearth of up-to-date medical information available to the public that led to a $4,000 donation from doctors at St. Luke's Hospital to help the Bethlehem Public Library purchase medical and health-related books.

The idea for a program of consumer medical information was spawned by St. Luke's medical staff president Dr. Jay Berger after a patient asked to be referred to educational material on an unusual illness.

In checking with hospital librarian Maria Collette, "It became apparent there wasn't any localized place to get that information," says Dr. Berger, and the idea of offering a program of education for the consumer was presented to and developed by Dr. Thomas Gaydos and his patient education committee.

Although the hospital offers Tel-Med tape-recorded information by telephone on a variety of medical topics, and other patient education programs, it cannot provide the detail some consumers may want, says Dr. Gaydos.

Upon exploring the idea of free access to detailed medical information for the consumer, "we found that the logical place is the (public) library."

But, a review of the library's collection by Mrs. Collette; Anne Caples, assistant director of educational services at St. Luke's, and Jack M. Berk, director of the Bethlehem Public Library and his staff showed that "the medical section was woefully out of date," says Dr. Gaydos.

"A medical textbook is said to be two years old before it reaches the shelf," Dr. Berger comments, pointing to rapid advances in medical science and need for current consumer information.

With the support and approval of the hospital's medical staff, the library was invited to propose a "wish-list" of texts needing updating and of new acquisitions to offer a more extensive collection to its clientele.

The result was an extensive and expensive list of reference books, circulating titles and even children's books for readers of all ages and skills. The estimated cost was $4,000.

In less than a month, more than 100 St. Luke's physicians donated the funds for the project and a check was presented to the library in late December. Books purchased with that money will be designated by a plate in the front of the text. Drs. Berger and Gaydos say the project is unique in this area.

Robert Freedman, coordinator of technical services for the library, says the new books which began arriving several weeks ago "will quantitatively and qualitatively improve access to medical information in the community." Without the assistance from the medical community, the library might have had to discard many of the outdated texts which were more than a dozen years old without being able to replace them immediately.

In addition, very expensive texts such as the latest edition of the four- volume Topley and Wilson's "Principles of Bacteriology, Virology and Immunity" at $320 a set would not have been purchased.

Jane Gill, public services coordinator at the public library, says there is a growing trend toward consumer self-education about health and medical topics as evidenced by inquiries from the public.

Nutrition, exercise, sports medicine and the entire gamut of health- related topics are popular reading. And, there is more interest by the layman in consulting medical literature (despite it being written in "medicalese") for detailed information about diseases, drugs and their side effects, medical tests, surgical procedures and rehabilitation.

New editions have been purchased of the still popular, "Gray's Anatomy," "Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary," "Principles of Neurology," "Textbook of Surgery," "Sourcebook on Food and Nutrition" and the 1985 editions of "Cecil Textbook of Medicine" and "Current Therapy."

The funds also will provide for a three-year subscription to the New England Journal of Medicine, a popular periodical which was eliminated from the library's collection in 1983 when the library was forced to trim its periodical budget. Because of the interest of library patrons, the library placed it as a priority item on its wish list.

"Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials," a 3,000-page volume dealing with products in the home and work place, has been updated at a cost of nearly $200.